Dyson plans to launch an electric car by 2020

Move over, fans and vacuums. Dyson is building electric cars.

The company's founder, James Dyson, made the announcement in an email to employees on Tuesday.

"I wanted you to hear it directly from me: Dyson has begun work on a battery electric vehicle," he said.

The British company plans to launch the car by 2020, and has committed to investing £2 billion, or about $2.35 billion, in the project. More than 400 people, including Dyson engineers and others, are already working on bringing Dyson electric vehicles to life.

The inventor said a Dyson team first started working on the project in 1990. "By 1993 we had developed several working prototypes," he said. "To our chagrin, nobody at the time was interested in employing our diesel exhaust capture system and we stopped the project."